Commercially available repair units for repairing truck, agricultural and earthmoving equipment tires and the like are generally limited to the repair of injuries measuring less than about six inches in length. If the injury is greater than about six inches, the tire must be thrown away.
In an ordinary sectional repair, the injuring item is removed and a Y-shaped skive formed in the tire. The skive opens outwardly and is blocked at its lower end with a platform attached to the inner wall of the tire. The skive is packed with a plug of unvulcanized rubber. A patch is applied on the inside of the tire over the platform. Depending on the capacity of the vulcanizing equipment, the patch can be vulcanized with the plug or it may be applied later and chemically vulcanized. If the injury is too large, there is a tendency for the tire to bulge at the repaired skive and a possibility that the tire may rupture.
Truck tires and agricultural and earthmoving equipment tires and the like are expensive to replace and, in addition, many states regulate their disposal. In addition to environmental issues, there are national security and balance of trade implications for oil importing nations because tires are made from oil. In some cases depending on where the injured tires are located (i.e., cost to collect and transport) and the size of the tires, the tires can be chipped up and used for fuel or recycled. For large off-the-road-tires recycling or burning is not an option because there is no equipment presently available to grind them and for all tires even at best, the alternatives for disposal are wasteful.
In view of the above, there is a need for a sectional tire repair process which increases the range of repairable injuries and for the tires which have been repaired.